Set up my 2024 Bronco Badlands to flat tow

[Chad Heiser]

I spent the day setting up my Bronco to tow behind my RV. I want to say thank you to others here on the forum for doing this and discussing what you did. It greatly helped me out by reading all that information before doing the work.

I started by removing the front bumper and installing LOD Off Road's Black Ops front bumper frame tie in brackets. I purchased these to give a little more support to the factory D-Ring attachment points on the bumper. I am using a Roadmaster 677 Nighthawk tow bar with the Roadmaster 035-1 Tow Bar Adapters. These mate up to the factory D-Ring attachment points perfectly.

Here is the front bumper removed.

Here is the passenger side frame mount for the front bumper.

Here are the holes I drilled for the LOD Off Road frame tie in brackets. The hole on the left was a factory hole that was enlarged to 1/2" and the hole on the right was drilled to match the bracket.

Here is the outer LOD Off Road frame tie in bracket installed on the passenger side.

Here is the inner bracket on the passenger side.

Here you can see the mounting bolts for the brackets from the front.

Here is the outer bracket on the driver side.

Here is the inner bracket on the driver side.

Here are the mounting bolts for the driver side.

I then installed the Curt 58992 Custom Towed-Vehicle Wiring Harness for Dinghy Towing a Ford Bronco. This easily teed into the factory taillight connectors.

Here are the driver side harness connections.

Here are the passenger side harness connections.

Here you can see the remaining wire from the harness waiting to be run to the front of the vehicle.

Here is the newly run wiring terminated behind the front bumper and wired into a 6 pin RV connector mounted in the driver side of the bumper. I ran the wiring up to the front of the vehicle following the frame and the factory wiring harness. I went into the engine compartment at the back of the driver side wheel well and followed the inner fender back down to the front bumper. I protected the new wiring with split loom and wrapped it in black electrical tape for some added safety. In addition to the four wires coming from the tail light integration kit, this also has a charge wire integrated into it.

I purchased RVI's Towed Battery Charger Plus to keep the Bronco battery charged while it is being towed and RVI's 12-Volt Battery Direct Kit to power an RVIBrake3 while under way. I installed the charger on top of the battery hold down bracket in the engine compartment with a zip tie. I covered all the wiring in split loom and ran it alongside factory wiring in the engine bay, down to the front bumper area to tie into the 6 pin connector with the other wiring.

Here is the 12 volt socket I wired direct from the battery to power the brake module. It is zip tied up, out of the way above the dead pedal in the driver footwell.

I installed the breakaway switch under the driver side front D-Ring adapter and ran its wiring into the driver side footwell along side the 12 volt socket. This just plugs into the braking system. Here is a picture of the breakaway switch and the 6 pin connector installed on the front bumper. I had to make a small notch in the lower plastic for the breakaway switch and obviously drill a hole in the same plastic for the 6 pin connector. There was already a round hole in the metal bumper behind the plastic cover, but I had to drill it out a bit for the 6 pin connector to fit.

I am using an RVIbrake3 Portable Flat Towing Braking System for the dinghy brakes. Here it is connected to the brake pedal. You can see it is plugged into the 12 volt socket for power and the breakaway wiring is plugged into the side of the device between the handle mounts. The breakaway wiring is a simple 3.5 mm (I think) plug.

I edited this post to better integrate the pictures with descriptions. For some reason, I can't get rid of this last duplicate picture.

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[dgorsett]

Nice job! I too use RVI Brake 2 in my case, RVI Charger, Curt light set up, but Blue Ox bases and Demco Tow bar.

 

[Chad Heiser]

I just took it out and towed it with my pickup as a first test run. (Of course I forgot to take a picture of it with the tow bar in place before I unhooked everything. ) It worked great. I am really happy with the set up and am looking forward to having the Bronco with us when we are out with the RV. The Bronco is replacing a Smart car we used to take with us when traveling, so a big upgrade.

 

[doo4sno]

great job, great photos, I to use the rvi system, I used a hot wire from motorhome to power up the rvi system, used a 5 wire plug adapter reduced from my 7 wire plug, also made my own light bar, I don't use any power from bronco, tow our 2 dr badlands hardly feel it back there.

 

[realtorbrad]

Great job and pics!! I too a few weeks ago added roadmaster tow connectors, lighting connectors with a charge wire and I used Air Force one brake system. Have not tested mine as plan to do so after first of year. I towed my big F250 behind my Moho so this will be much lighter. I can tell the Bronco sits up much higher to connect so I will need a riser connection on my Moho so it connects more evenly. Safe travels

 

[Sparkie]

I spent the day setting up my Bronco to tow behind my RV. I want to say thank you to others here on the forum for doing this and discussing what you did. It greatly helped me out by reading all that information before doing the work.

I started by removing the front bumper ...

Nicely done and well documented.
Thank you.
I'll keep this thread in mind if I ever need to flat tow my Bronco.

 

[Tilzbow]

Nicely done! What’s RV do you tow with?

 

[Coosguy]

I spent the day setting up my Bronco to tow behind my RV. I want to say thank you to others here on the forum for doing this and discussing what you did. It greatly helped me out by reading all that information before doing the work.

I started by removing the front bumper and installing LOD Offroad's Black Ops front bumper frame tie in brackets. I purchased these to give a little more support to the factory D-Ring attachment points on the bumper. I am using a Roadmaster 677 Nighthawk tow bar with the Roadmaster 035-1 Tow Bar Adapters. These mate up to the factory D-Ring attachment points perfectly.

I then installed the Curt 58992 Custom Towed-Vehicle Wiring Harness for Dinghy Towing a Ford Bronco. This easily teed into the factory taillight connectors. I ran the wiring up to the front of the vehicle following the frame and the factory wiring harness. I protected the new wiring with split loom and wrapped it in black electrical tape for some added safety.

I am using an RVIbrake3 Portable Flat Towing Braking System for the dinghy brakes.

I purchased RVI's Towed Battery Charger Plus to keep the Bronco battery charged while it is being towed and RVI's 12-Volt Battery Direct Kit to power the RVIBrake3. I installed the charger on top of the battery hold down bracket in the engine compartment with a zip tie. I covered all the wiring in split loom and ran it alongside factory wiring in the engine bay, down to the front bumper area.

I was able to install the breakaway system under the driver side D-Ring adapter and the vehicle side 6-way trailer wiring connector along side the driver side D-Ring adapter. This required modifying the plastic cover around the D-Ring adapter, but everything fit nicely and it is all out of the way.

I ran the 12-Volt Direct Kit and the breakaway wiring into the passenger compartment through the factory provided grommet in the fire wall. These are zip tied out of the way under the dash above the dead pedal foot rest.

I attached pictures of the equipment and what things looked like during the installation for reference. (By the way, the pictures loaded out of order and wouldn't re-order when I tried to edit the post.)

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Nice job, very similar to my set up,

 

[Chad Heiser]

Nicely done! What’s RV do you tow with?

I actually tow a toy hauler with a converted Volvo tractor. The toy hauler is for my RZR Turbo S. The Bronco will get double towed behind the toy hauler.

 

[Tilzbow]

I actually tow a toy hauler with a converted Volvo tractor. The toy hauler is for my RZR Turbo S. The Bronco will get double towed behind the toy hauler.

Nice rig! You're a brave man towing doubles!

 

[Chad Heiser]

Nice rig! You're a brave man towing doubles!

I've been doing it for years with various towed vehicles and utility trailers behind various 5th wheels. I've always used a converted over the road tractor as my toter though. I started with a Kenworth T2000 and now have the Volvo VNL 670 in the above picture. This gives me piece of mind knowing the tow rig can handle any RV weights or doubles I put behind it. It is meant to handle a 60K lb. trailer and I am nowhere near that with my RV stuff. I personally would not double tow with a standard HD pickup (even though lots of people do). I like knowing my toter can stop the train even if it looses trailer/towed brakes or whatever might happen.

 

[Hammer21]

I have a diesel pusher that I tow my Bronco with. I use the same set up that you do with the RoadMaster and RVi3. Did I read correctly that you’re using the Bronco frame D-rings? I had the RoadMaster frame horns installed because I thought there was no other choice. Would you mind showing a picture of your set
Up? I’d love to go back to the stock frame horns if that’s at all possible.

 

[Chad Heiser]

I have a diesel pusher that I tow my Bronco with. I use the same set up that you do with the RoadMaster and RVi3. Did I read correctly that you’re using the Bronco frame D-rings? I had the RoadMaster frame horns installed because I thought there was no other choice. Would you mind showing a picture of your set
Up? I’d love to go back to the stock frame horns if that’s at all possible.

Yes I am using the factory D-Ring recovery points. I did not want to loose them and I don’t like aftermarket baseplates because they typically leave equipment hanging out in space that can get in the way of off road driving. I have towed previous off road vehicles from the bumper D-Ring recovery points and it worked well. I have the Roadmaster adapters to mate up to the-Ring recovery points for my Nighthawk tow bar. I was not happy with how the D-Ring recovery points were actually secured to the vehicle so I added LOD Off-road Blackops frame tie in brackets to secure them better. These also provide an additional connection point for the safety cables below the bumper. I forgot to take a picture of the setup connected when I did my first test pull. I will try to hook up again tomorrow to get some pictures.

 

[Hammer21]

Yes I am using the factory D-Ring recovery points. I did not want to loose them and I don’t like aftermarket baseplates because they typically leave equipment hanging out in space that can get in the way of off road driving. I have towed previous off road vehicles from the bumper D-Ring recovery points and it worked well. I have the Roadmaster adapters to mate up to the-Ring recovery points for my Nighthawk tow bar. I was not happy with how the D-Ring recovery points were actually secured to the vehicle so I added LOD Off-road Blackops frame tie in brackets to secure them better. These also provide an additional connection point for the safety cables below the bumper. I forgot to take a picture of the setup connected when I did my first test pull. I will try to hook up again tomorrow to get some pictures.

I hated losing my d-rings. Camping World told me that there no options. I have a ton of questions LOL. I’m sure the majority of them would be answered by the pictures of the setup all connected.

 

[Chad Heiser]

I hated losing my d-rings. Camping World told me that there no options. I have a ton of questions LOL. I’m sure the majority of them would be answered by the pictures of the setup all connected.

Here are pictures of the tow bar connected. The first picture is what the bumper looks like with the new 6 pin connector (to the right of driver side D-Ring adapter) and breakaway switch (under driver side D-Ring adapter) installed.

Here it is with the tow bar connected to the bumper D-Ring adapters (the front of the tow bar is just sitting on a bucket for the picture). You can see the trailer wiring plugged into the 6-pin adapter and the coiled cable below the tow bar on the driver side connected to the breakaway switch.

Here is a side view of the bumper connections from the driver side. You can see the safety cables connected below the bumper. These are connected to the lower loops of the LOD Off Road frame tie in brackets. I added quick links to the LOD brackets to get out between the skid plate and the bumper to make connecting the safety cables easier.

Here is a side view from the passenger side.

Here is a view behind the bumper on the passenger side. This shows the LOD Off Road frame tie in bracket lower loop with the quick link attached to extend between the skid plate and the bumper.

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